Demeke Abel Desalegn, Yeshiwas Alemayehu, Gebrie Habtamu, Ayehu Akele Mequanint, Gashaw Anteneh, Dessie Gesssess Abraham, Melkie Takla Tamir, Bogale Netsanet, Eba Wondimagegn Wolde
Department of Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia
School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia.
BMJ Open. 2025 Sep 14;15(9):e098778. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-098778.
Palliative cancer care is comprehensive, specialised medical care of patients that aims to alleviate physical, mental and emotional distress based on patients' needs rather than on prognosis. In Ethiopia, the federal ministry of health started palliative care (PC) in 2016. Since then, services have been developed and integrated as important components of the Health Sector Transformation Plan II. However, there is a scarcity of nationally summarised data regarding PC service utilisation in Ethiopia. Therefore, this protocol describes a planned systematic review and meta-analysis that will evaluate utilisation of PC services and its predictors among adult cancer patients in Ethiopia.
The online databases of PubMed, Hinari, EMBASE, CINHAL, Science Direct, Scopus and Google Scholar will be comprehensively searched from inception to 31 February 2025. To assess the quality of included studies, the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools will be used. The statistical software STATA V.17 will be used for data analyses. To examine the heterogeneity between studies, inverse variance (I) will be used. To calculate the pooled prevalence of PC service utilisation, a fixed or random effects meta-analyses model will be used with a 95% CI, depending on the presence or absence of heterogeneity between included studies. To look for publication bias, a visual inspection of the funnel plot and Egger and Begg's regression test and a 5% level of significance will be used.
Ethical approval is not applicable. The results will be disseminated to academic beneficiaries and the public.
姑息性癌症护理是针对患者的全面、专业医疗护理，旨在根据患者需求而非预后缓解其身体、心理和情感痛苦。在埃塞俄比亚，联邦卫生部于2016年启动了姑息治疗（PC）。自那时起，服务得到了发展并被整合为《卫生部门转型计划II》的重要组成部分。然而，埃塞俄比亚缺乏关于PC服务利用情况的全国性汇总数据。因此，本方案描述了一项计划中的系统评价和荟萃分析，该分析将评估埃塞俄比亚成年癌症患者中PC服务的利用情况及其预测因素。
将全面检索PubMed、Hinari、EMBASE、CINHAL、Science Direct、Scopus和Google Scholar的在线数据库，检索时间从建库至2025年2月28日。将使用乔安娜·布里格斯研究所的批判性评价工具来评估纳入研究的质量。将使用统计软件STATA V.17进行数据分析。为检验研究间的异质性，将使用逆方差（I）。为计算PC服务利用的合并患病率，将根据纳入研究间是否存在异质性，使用固定效应或随机效应荟萃分析模型，并给出95%置信区间。为查找发表偏倚，将通过漏斗图的目视检查、Egger和Begg回归检验以及5%的显著性水平进行分析。
无需伦理批准。研究结果将传播给学术受益者和公众。
